I’ve received various questions about underwriting practices on Spokane Public Radio and NPR. This is a good opportunity to talk through some of the complex issues surrounding seemingly simple questions. NPR is solely responsible for its content. But as an NPR affiliate station, SPR adheres to their journalistic guidelines, as well as to the Federal Communications Commission restrictions on the kind of non-commercial/educational license we have. Steps are periodically taken to review our ethical guidelines, and more detailed information is available at ethics.npr.org . NPR ethics were externally reviewed recently by Robert Steele, a specialist in journalistic ethics at DePauw University. I quote from some of the resulting NPR guidelines below: Independence: To secure the public’s trust, we must make it clear that our primary allegiance is to the public. Any personal or professional interests that conflict with that allegiance, whether in appearance or in reality, risk compromising our
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